The Digital Preservation Training Programme (DPTP) bagged itself a prestigious award at the Digital Preservation awards 2012. We were up against fierce national and international competition and so it was a tremendous honour to win. However as pleased as we are about this validation of our work, it would never have happened without the work and support of so many people. This post is a way of expressing our gratitude to those who have contributed and supported the project.

None of this would have been possible if the JISC hadn’t funded the initial year long project in 2006. Thank you JISC. This saw us working with Cornell University Library (Nancy Mc Govern and Ann Kenney), ULCC, King’s College (Simon Tanner), the DPC (Wiliam Kilbride and Maggie Jones) and the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) (Jen Mitcham). In particular Nancy McGovern and Anne Kenney’s models are invaluable for introducing digital preservation. Thanks all.

Thanks also to those at ULCC past and present: Kevin Ashley, Richard Davis, all the team at ULCC for being great and amazing through the highs and lows (hardly any of course) of digital preservation: Silvia Arango Docio, Rory McNicholl, Jose Martin and Kate Bradford without whose trojan work we would have been lost. Also big thanks to Graciano Soares who showed us that by working well with students we can get so much more from the course and make it lots of fun and truly engaging. The joy of this course is so much about working with knowledgeable, diverse and interesting people and seeing lightbulb moments when something ‘clicks’. So thanks must also go to all the people who have attended and institutions who send their staff to us (and pay good money) since 2006. Thanks also to Frank Steiner and Kienuwa Enobakhare for trying to get us to sell ourselves more! Thanks also to our Director Richard Maccabee for his support.

Big thanks to the DPC and their support of course.

Lastly I would like to dedicate my part of the prize to the librarians and archivists of Iraq, in particular Dr Saad Eskander who despite living and working in difficult situations we cannot begin to imagine, has recognised the vital importance of digital preservation. This has been been done in the context of many projects both big and small but crucially for their new digital library for all Iraqi people in the midst of a society in turmoil.

We hope this makes up for the fact that we didn’t get to say this on the night. The list really could go on and I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone. We also hope that the message gets clearer to the unitiated of you reading this about the importance of safeguarding our digital memory and what is at stake if we don’t act. It is a paradigm shift, from being reactive to proactive about preserving our past, both personal and collective, call it a revolution if you will but a revolution it is.